2008-07-19

Well, its that time of year again [pay raise? -ed], the time of year that your humble correspondant takes a well-deserved three week vacation. Naturally, my extended absence will mean that I'm unable to provide you with the level of advanced and in depth correspondance you have all come to expect. In the interim, I will do the same thing I did last time I went on a holiday, and provide you with an open thread for all wild comments, and a couple of good starting points to get your creative juices flowing.

Sikh Male loses helmet appealHow about an easy and simple legislative solution that eliminates the problem and restores freedom of religion:Non Christians are prohibited from wearing safety equipment while biking or bicycling or rollerblading. (Or working construction)

Calgary Police Association says "the public has to know that nobody -- not even a police officer -- is above the law."Edmonton Police say "er, hold on, that doesn't include us does it? No? Okay, good"

Or, how about pictures of hot chicks?

I don't wish to impose any restrictions here (partly because I won't be around to delete offending messages [what am I, chopped liver? Oh, wait, I'm taking a Mai Tai break of my own at Hawreluk Park -ed]) but its a free-for-all in the comments, so enjoy.

As I imply in the title to this post, I have a feeling that Ashley MacIssac's "future revenue" may not be worth more than $3 million. I have an odd feeling that the only revenue you'll get half of is the money you've paid him yourself.

It's what skeptics have suspected all along, and now it's official: Cameras don't catch crooks. Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville, head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office of Scotland Yard, told a conference in London, England, this week that the project of plastering the city with closed-circuit TV cameras (CCTV) has been "a fiasco."

So naturally we're going to try this out on Jasper Avenue. Because hey, its important to look like something's being done.

Yet again we see corrupt Edmonton Police officers getting away with actions which other people would be locked up for. The two pigs burst into the home of an innocent electrician a few years back with no warrant, and when he tried to keep the cops outside they attacked and pepper sprayed him.

Provincial court Judge Vaughn Myers accepted the men were exemplary police officers and good citizens, but said something must be given back to the community because they had unlawfully invaded a private residence.

Myers noted "there would have been an uproar" if it had been the home of a police officer, a defence lawyer, a prosecutor, a court clerk or a judge involved.

"The moment the court treats the home of an electrician with any less sanctity is the day justice has left the building," said Myers.

If these two freaks of nature are "exemplary police officers" than I sure as hell don't want to meet any below average ones! Judge Myers has the case all backwards though: there would have been no uproar if police had burst into the home of a defence lawyer [though police seem to be allowed to taser and arrest lawyers at will. -ed], but there sure would be hell if some electrician burst into somebody's home and beat the guy up. Make no mistake about it, this is precisely what happened in this case.

And yet again, two guilty men, two corrupt Edmonton Police officers, two scumbag pigs, are getting away with it.

Okay, this isn't something that really snuck up on us: the Norrmalmstorg robbery was thirty-five years ago this August. Regardless, watching a captor's cause be mirrored in the mouth of a recent victim, and a politician no less, is always a little worrying.

On the other hand, Betancourt was already more than a little loopy. As the founder of the "Green Oxygen Party she was in favour of "an ecological conscience, social justice, participative democracy, non violence resolutions, human sustainability and respect for diversity" in Colombian politics. In other words, just another Marxist -- albeit one who didn't hang around in hills kidnapping folk.

One thing I can say about a right-winger captured by Marxist guerillas: I cannot guarantee no psychological transferance, but after the ordeal it is highly unlikely that they will decide that writing a play is a reasonable course of action after release.

Ms Betancourt has become a celebrity in France, and is due to receive a Legion of Honour medal from President Nicolas Sarkozy next week.

She has said that she plans to write a play about her experience of being held hostage by the left-wing rebels.

This article about Bell and Telus' plan to start charging us for incoming texts is fairly good, with perhaps one paragraph really ruining it:

A text message sent via mobile phone can be no more than 160 characters, and each character is about a byte. If 45 million text messages are sent throughout Canada every day and each message is about 100 characters, this totals 4.5 gigabytes. This amounts to about the same amount of gigabytes required to download two or three high-resolution movies from the Internet.

About a byte, eh? Are there a whole lot of 9-bit characters floating around out there?

It's a shame really, because the article goes on to make several good points (not just the 'two or three downloaded movies' bit). For instance, how about the revelation that even with Bell/Telus only charging $0.10 per outgoing text (currently $0.15), the resultant per-byte fee ends up being some 5 times higher than what NASA pays to transmit data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

2008-07-11

The website of the Jh Model Agency in Shanghai, which was not accessible on Tuesday, had featured a photo and the name of Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy, whose New York agency said the picture was likely being used without permission

But working in China wasn't the star-studded dream O'Brien thought it would be. And only about two weeks into her three-month contract with Jh Model Agency, O'Brien was found dead, possibly the victim of a botched break-and-enter.

Days before her suspected murder, O'Brien complained to her friends about the type of assignments she was getting in Shanghai. Many models here are hired for club and restaurant openings or product launches, where their job is to decorate the scene.

It's not unusual for them to be sent to dancing jobs as well - the type of work O'Brien was doing for the Chinese agency, friends said. She was told to dance in long, flowing robes, said friend Melanie Callas.

"It wasn't provocative. She could dance however she wanted, but it was sort of odd," said Callas.

O'Brien was getting homesick, and had decided to return to Canada on July 24 or 25. She wanted to be back in Saltspring Island at the home she shared with her boyfriend.

The day before her death, O'Brien was assigned to work in Kunming, Yunnan, a city near the Chinese border with Vietnam. She was to stay over the weekend. She left her apartment Saturday, but didn't make it out of Shanghai.

On Tuesday, the website of the Jh Model Agency was not accessible. Earlier, however, the site featured pictures of dozens of Chinese and international models, calling the company one of China's top agencies.

There was no answer Tuesday at either of the phone numbers listed for the Chinese agency, and a visit to the rundown building where the modelling agency was supposed to be located proved puzzling. A young man who answered the door said he was a wedding photographer who had moved in a month ago, adding he knew nothing about a modelling agency.

But his neighbours in the down-market building told a different story. They said four people worked out of the office and that it was, in fact, a modelling agency. One neighbour said she rode in the elevator just last week with two Western models.

A second address listed for the modelling agency, an office at another rundown apartment complex, was closed and nobody answered the bell.

Something here just reeks of creepy. Why did the website shut down before police discovered her body? Why were they able to vacate the offices so quickly? How much of a coincidence is it that she tried to break her contract and suddenly turned up dead? And how much of a coincidence is it that Chinese authorities were able to find an 18 year old man so quickly after taking two days to officially begin the investigation? Any way you shake it, this doesn't make sense.

First off he didn't get the award for performing abortions, he received it for his part in making the government acknowledge a women's right to choose what they want to do with their bodies and lives!! For you to dictate to anyone else what they should do or believe makes you in the wrong! If you personally don't believe in abortions fine! Don't practice it!!!

I already addressed the first bit: to wit, in an abortion the woman is snuffing out the baby's life, not hers. Which is why I am completely unflummoxed by the threat of "back alley abortions". After all, if a woman dies in the course of committing a regular murder we don't get all weepy eyed over her, so why should we be upset that a woman went into a back alley, successfully murdered her own baby with a coat hanger, and then later died of hemmoraging?

Anyways, as for the part I do plan to address uniquely here, there is a side of the abortion debate that gets ignored. The men who want abortions but their bitchy cows of an ex-girlfriend refuse to get them. How do people like Amanda find it justified to force men to pay child support for a baby that they have already tried to get offed? Now seeing that women seem to get to decide to have an abortion whether the man wants one or not (even if, say, he agrees to care for the child himself and/or put it up for adoption himself), can we at least ammend the law so that if the man is willing to abort the child, and the woman refuses, that he is not required to pay a dime in child support? After all, if the man personally does believe in abortions, should he not get the chance to not pay child support for 18 years?

Anyways, I started the post off by saying "all hail the abortionists" and I meant it. I think its time that, media darlings aside, we pay attention to some other important abortionists in Canada. This man here, like Morgentaler, believed in the parental right to chose, was derided and hated for his beliefs, and even thrown in prison. So let's all raise our glasses [you too Amanda, sweetheart, this one's for you! -ed] and toast another proud Canadian supporter of abortions!

2008-07-06

Dion was in Edmonton today complaining about Alberta, while the socialist morons in the crowd delighted in listening to a man denigrate thems. What kind of self-hating people are these, anyways?

(Bonus aside courtesy a friend via IM: notice how it looks like the poster says "Fucking U.S."? Think that was even remotely accidental?)

GP Conservative argues thus, and none too senselessly:

Perhaps instead we should tax Ontario a hundred million bucks for every loss of life due to smog and distribute it to Albertans via tax cuts.

I was thinking today that, had I been available this afternoon, a protest in front of this stupid conference would have been the way to go. Letting Dion know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome in this province would be wonderful. But it was raining, so I didn't go. I'll discuss this in a future post (why the rain stopped me, not Dion).

2008-07-04

CALGARY _ Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton says he's thrilled that long-time Alberta New Democrat Ray Martin has agreed to seek the candidacy for the national party in the riding of Edmonton East.

Martin served as the Alberta NDP leader for eight years in the late 1980s to early 1990s. He then returned to provincial politics to represent an east-Edmonton riding for four years until he was defeated in March when the Conservatives roared back to power with 72 seats.

Layton says Martin is well respected and known as a man with a lot of integrity. Federal New Democrats say they hope Martin will help launch `a breakthrough' for them in the province, where all federal seats are currently held by the Conservatives.

The NDP nomination meeting for Edmonton East is expected in September. (The Canadian Press, ccg)

You know, for the side of the ideological fence that always insults conservatives for being "regressive" because we don't believe poofters should be allowed to (adopt/marry/parade/exist) or we haven't "progressively" enough decided to side with the Taliban in the House of Commons, the socialists are the most "regressive" folks around.